Which brings up a language question I have grappled with recently... is it was correct to say grand-niece or great-niece? Having become a Great Aunt for the second time, I think symmetry demands the little ones should be prefixed with "great-." On the other hand, I'm attracted to the idea of calling myself a Grand Aunt.
I never thought of this question -- but in popular parlance, it seems that the aunt/uncle is the great one, and the niece/nephew is the grand one. Wonder how it got started? So people wouldn't say "she's a grand grandmother" rather than "she's a great grandmother." Which leads to another usage question -- how to punctuate that sentence to distinguish between a woman whose grandchildren have children from a woman who does a great job as a grandmother.
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Which brings up a language question I have grappled with recently... is it was correct to say grand-niece or great-niece? Having become a Great Aunt for the second time, I think symmetry demands the little ones should be prefixed with "great-." On the other hand, I'm attracted to the idea of calling myself a Grand Aunt.
I never thought of this question -- but in popular parlance, it seems that the aunt/uncle is the great one, and the niece/nephew is the grand one. Wonder how it got started? So people wouldn't say "she's a grand grandmother" rather than "she's a great grandmother." Which leads to another usage question -- how to punctuate that sentence to distinguish between a woman whose grandchildren have children from a woman who does a great job as a grandmother.
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